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Do we have any new insights at all?

One of the things that I have been thinking about is whether I am adding any value to the blog for others. Yes, most of my content is around Operating Models, occasional leadership stuff, and links to quality videos on TED.com. My goal has always been about Getting off the Drawing board and start doing something even if it is not fully planned. There is a cliché that “Failure to Plan is a Plan for Failure” but the length of a plan, and thorough analysis of every data point also does not lead to success. The more I link to others content on Operating & Business Models; I have begun to understand that the context in which decisions are being made is as important. The end result i.e. Operating Model the company has chosen, or the business model that the organization has decided to run with, is based on many hours if not thousands of hours of effort. So what was on the drawing board? Did parameters, factors and variables include Cost, Profits, Capabilities of the organization, risks of execution, and politics?

Is the easy access to data on the internet making our brains shallow? Do we have any new insights to assist the organizations to move them to next level of performance? This is the struggle. We make investments make on Green Field. We look at White Space Opportunities, Long Tails, and Blue Oceans. It is fascinating to see so many colors – Blue, White and Green, but what about GREY? Is there a perfect color that is so obvious, that we all knew would lead us to success?

I am ranting here. Leadership, developing a culture of curiosity, asking tough questions, quick gut & pulse check, making mistakes and quickly learning from them are as important as factual data based analysis. What is individual’s mental capacity (EQ) in making that final GO-NO GO decision? How do you balance and Formal business drivers with informal cultural aspects that motivates the teams to push the business into new frontiers? I am curious to understand how you are getting stuff off our drawing boards. I have read lots of books that share authors’ perspectives and in most cases the books are darn good read. But does it help you get off the inertia and actually do something….